Love U Sktech Inspiration...

I eeked out a few hours to scrap despite my busy work schedule this past week (and continuing into this weekend) and this is what I worked on...



Alphabet stickers - EK Success; Border strips - K & Co.; Chipboard elements - American Crafts; Felt flowers - Michael's; Patterned paper - Cloud 9 Design (solid yellow), My Mind's Eye (blue print and blue solid), and Die Cuts With a View (yellow pattern); Pen - Zig Writer

This layout is based on sketch #204 over at Sketch Inspiration.  Enjoy...I'm off to work again!

January's Sketch Over at The Sweet Peach Crop Shop

The Sweet Peach Crop Shop has a wonderful sketch by Liz Chidester up on their blog for January.  I know the month is almost over but submissions aren't due until February 7th so you still have plenty of time to play along.  This is the sketch...

Fun right?  Here's the layout I made for it...



Alphabet stickers - Doodlebug Design Inc.; Brad - Basic Grey; Cardstock - Fancy Pants (kraft) and American Crafts (white); Chipboard stickers - Cosmo Cricket (heart), K & Co. ("sweetie"); Flower - Prima; Ink - StazOn in Timber Brown; Metal embellishments - craft supplies (green frame, "laugh" and "relax"); Patterned paper - Bella Blvd.; Pen - Zig Writer; Ribbon - Cosmo Cricket (hearts) & Michael's (red); Rub-ons - EK Success ("We Love Life" and "Unforgettable") and Basic Grey (red floral border strip & small green flower)

I created the tags out of patterned paper from Bella Blvd. Man of the House collection and white cardstock.  The top tag is simply for looks and doesn't come out but the bottom tag is where I placed my journaling so it is interactive.  Here's the tag out of it's hiding place.

Once again, I really mixed up my supplies.  I decided I really wanted to use this Bella Blvd. paper to go with these photos of my husband so I just started to pull anything and everything down from my pegboard wall that matched.  Lots of really old stuff on this layout but I love how all the colors worked so well together.  Besides...the sooner I use up those old supplies...the quicker I'll have room for all that  new product coming out of CHA (wink, wink).

What I Love About You...

Since I've been super busy with work this past week, I haven't had a whole lot of crafty time for myself.  I found  a few moments yesterday though and created a {LOVE} themed card for my design team challenge over at Crop Chocolate.  With the exception of the flower and the base cardstock, the entire thing was created with product that I've purchased at Crop Chocolate (at super great prices I might add).  I've been seeing a lot of this color combination of the turquoise and bright pink so I thought I'd give it a whirl on my whimsical card.

Cardstock - American Crafts; Patterned Paper - Sassafras; Journaling card - Echo Park Paper Co.; Border punch - Fiskars; Border sticker - Echo Park Paper Co.; Flowers - Prima & Sassafras; Thread - Coats & Clark; Sewing machine - Singer

I used my sewing machine on this one and had fun with another random stitch pattern.  I also moved my sewing machine and it's table up to my craft room - granted it's in the closet but it's a walk in closet with good lighting so it will do just fine.  I imagine you'll see LOTS more stitching on my projects now that I don't have to venture into our cold basement to use my sewing machine...it's just a few steps from my work table.  Oh, I'm truly in heaven with my new crafty space.

Giveaway over at Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker

Nikki's away and Julie will play...Julie Tucker-Wolek has taken Nikki's blog hostage while Nikki's away.  AND she's doing a giveaway.  Head on over and check it out.  Who wouldn't love a little bit of new Nikki Sivils????  I know I would LOVE it.

Skipping Stones Designs Sketch #60

Such a fun sketch over at Skipping Stones Designs this week.  I had to play along in what little crafty time I've got.  It's been a busy week and promises to get even busier...I'm working 9 days in a row and I'm only 3 days into it so wish me luck.  Here's the sketch they gave us to work with...

And here's my take on it...

This one shows the sentiment a little better.  It says "If friends were flowers I'd pick YOU"  except instead of actually saying the word "flowers" I used three little rub-on flowers that were included in the Doodlebug rub-on pack.  Sorry it's so hard to read the scanner just didn't want to pick up the lime green color very well but trust me, in person, it's super cute!

Blown Away by Maya Road's Day 3 Sneaks

Have you seen the Maya Road Day 3 Sneak Peeks?  Oh my goodness their stuff is gorgeous.  Just take a look at a few of these...

How is my scrapbook budget ever going to be able to handle all this delicious new product????

Little Lovies...

So for the first time in a long time, I sat down to create yesterday and didn't have a sketch or challenge or call submission in mind.  It felt good to craft just for me.  I mean it's all enjoyable for me no matter the reason and I love it all don't get me wrong but I often have motivation towards some sort of goal to keep me moving along.  Not this time.  I sat down to create these...

Some lunchbox love for my hubby...and if the kids are good maybe I'll tuck one in their lunch bags too (wink).  Such an easy project to make, I used up a ton of scraps pulling them together and with all the Valentine's Day stuff coming out...well, it just put me in the mood to make some mini valentines. 

I used all sorts of stamp sets and did lots of fussy cutting which is time consuming but on these little 3" x 3" cards a fussy cut element has a big impact.  I can't wait to start tucking these into his lunch bag.  I know he appreciates them because he asks on days when I forget or run out of time to jot a note and tuck it in with his lunch.

I'm glad I can send a little love his way in the midst of his insanely busy work day.  Take a few minutes today to throw together some lunchbox love notes...tuck them in your hubby's wallet or stash one on the seat of his car before he leaves in the morning.  Spread the love my crafty friends!

I Adore You...

I really do adore you...my blog readers.  I appreciate that someone (other than me and my husband who, by the way, is obligated to say nice things about my craftiness) enjoys looking at the stuff I create.  With Valentine's Day approaching I'm feeling love coming on and thought I'd play with some soft colors to put the love on paper.  I do put love notes in my husband's lunch almost everyday so this will work well for me because I do adore him very much!  I played with some leftover Girls Paperie from one of my Queen Scraps kits and a little Cosmo Cricket (the green gingham).  Pretty simple or simply pretty - you decide. 

ABC Scripture Challenge is The Scrappiest

This week I combined two challenges into one layout...what can I say, I'm working more and my time to craft is limited.  Plus I love Liz's sketches over at The Scrappiest so I tend to lean towards using them naturally.  So this week's sketch is shown below and the ABC Scripture Challenge to start off the year was the word Anchor.  I immediately thought of the Chris Tomlin song "I Will Rise" when I read this challenge.  God's word firmly grounds me on a daily basis.  I often feel I should be devoting significantly more time to being in His word.  This scripture challenge is letting me do just that and I can't wait to see what more God has in store for me.

Here's my take on the challenge & sketch...

I stitched my circle on my sewing machine (which hasn't gotten a ton of use since I got it over a year ago).  I was thrilled to discover this beautiful vine with leaves pattern.  It was SO easy and I love how it turned out.

These are the journaling cards that are tucked into the Maya Road kraft envelope that is next to the photograph.  The journaling is lyrics to the Chris Tomlin song.

I think you can see the stitched circle better in this picture.  I have a whole new love for my sewing machine and I bet you'll be seeing many more pretty patterns sewn onto layouts in the future!

The Band for My Creative Scrapbook Sketch

Here's the sketch I worked from that I found over at My Creative Scrapbook...

And my layout entitled The Band

I dug through some OLD supplies to pull this layout together.  I always have a tough time doing "teen" layouts because the typical cutesy boy papers just don't work for my teen.  He's a guitar player with long hair and trains and airplanes do not compute for him!  I've had this Creative Imaginations paper by Marah Johnson for probably 5 years - I found it along with a lot of the coordinating embellishments and had to have it - then I never used it.  Well it's about time I did.  The background polka dot paper is also really old - it's from EK Success and it's part of the "I Do" line that I bought when I first started scrapping (I was working on our wedding album at the time).  I added the inked edges to the papers to grunge it up a bit and make them all work together.  The die cut circle is actually Pink Paislee from one of their Christmas lines last year...it works though.  There is such a sense of satisfaction when I can pull together a page about my teen and be happy with the finished product...this is one of those times.

Sketch #201 at Sketch Inspiration

My husband decided to take our middle son to the fly fishing exposition today.  Our youngest is happily monopolizing the Wii and our oldest is off to the mall with his friend.  What's a mom to do?  Why scrap of course!  I pulled this one together with a serious mix of old and new product.  Thanks to that peg board wall my hubby put up, I can now find (and use) all those old products that I've been hoarding!  These photos are actually from Mother's Day last year but I love this "Boys Top" tag sticker and thought it spoke perfectly to my two youngest.  You can check out the sketch over at Sketch Inspiration and play along if you'd like. 

So my husband said to me this morning (as I was looking at sketches trying to decide which one to work on...) "How many layouts do you need to do?  Don't you have enough already?"  How do you respond to that???  Is it even really a question...although he totally supports my crafty-addiction and compliments me on my work, I just don't think he gets it.  That's okay, I don't understand his joy in tying teeny, tiny fishing hooks with feathers and beads to make them look like bugs.  To each his own I say!

Artful Delight January Challenge - ASC4

Another great sketch this month over at Artful Delight's blog.  I thought the sketch was perfect for a card I had to make for a my amazing mom's birthday that is coming up .  Don't worry I've delayed the post so her birthday will have passed before this post shows up - I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!  Once again I used stuff from the November Artful Delight kit that I won - I really love the soft colors of this kit and I think that the lavenders and blues are fabulously feminine.  On with the show - here's the sketch...

And here's the card...

See...soft, feminine and perfect for my Mom.  Love you Mom and hope your birthday was as special as you are!

Winter Mischief Over at The Scrappiest...

Liz has outdone herself yet again over at The Scrappiest.  Sketch #97 (only 3 more until she hits 100 over there) inspired me yet again.  I'm telling you these sketches are SO easy to work with...you can be as over the top as you want or keep it super simple.  Maybe part of it is that when I print out the sketch to reference while I'm working, it prints in greyscale so all I see is different shades of grey and it doesn't force me into anything.  Whatever the reason, I love her sketches so without further ado, here is her sketch...

And here is my little mischief maker...

Doesn't that smirk just look like trouble waiting to happen?  He was watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to nail his Dad with a snowball.  Such fun...

Going a Little Paper Crazy Today!

I know this is a ton of posts from me today - I'm feeling ultra inspired lately and have been missing my crafty time with the busy-ness of Christmas and New Years.  So Stephanie over at The Stamps of Life turned me onto a card challenge this week that looked like fun.  I just received these Sassafras paper whimsies for Christmas and they immediately came to mind when I saw this sketch over at CPS199. 

The Stamps of Life is hosting the prize package this week so try your hand at it.  I did and this is what I came up with.

Bright, sunny...perfect for a greeting to help chase the winter blahs away!

Get Your Sketch On Giveaway...

Get Your Sketch On is hosting an amazing giveaway - who couldn't spend $100 on scrappy goodness???  I know I'd have no problem doing that.  Although I don't tweet, there are other ways to enter.  So head on over...check them out, participate in a sketch (I know I plan to because I'm loving sketches these days) and get yourself entered to win.  Just wanted to share!

A Wintry Greeting...

I decided to play along with Skipping Stones Designs sketch challenge this week.  It's a great card sketch and you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want.  I decided that I have a dear friend all the way in Arkansas that I wanted to send a little snail mail too and I thought she'd love this wintry greeting since she's a transplant from Colorado. 

And why not take care of two (yes TWO) challenges with one project???  I used to work with one of the design team members over at The Paper Variety and I saw her project for this week's challenge over there which is...

Cute, cute, cute and super appropriate since we FINALLY have snow on the ground and are expecting bitter cold temperatures and more snow to roll in this coming weekend.  Besides I have this amazing Wintertime kit from Echo Park Paper Co. that I haven't played with nearly enough since I received it.  Put that all together and this is what I came up with...

The card base is from Basic Grey's kraft basics collection, the polka dot paper is Basic Grey too.  The other patterned paper and large snowflake sticker are from Echo Park Paper Co., the sentiment stamp is Unity  and it's hard to see but there are tiny snowflakes stamped onto the polka dot paper first in platinum ink and then embossed with kaleidoscope embossing powder.  The tiny snowflake stamp is from Basic Grey.  Fun card to make and even more fun to send to a good friend. 

Now I really need to get working on this ABC Scripture Challenge that I've decided I'd like to participate in this year.  It looks like a great way to dive deeper into the scriptures and strengthen my faith.  I have this worship song stuck in my head that goes along with this week's word which is "anchor"...now I just have to find the rest of the lyrics to the song so I can get started in my study about how to better anchor myself to God in the great times and the tough times. 

I Won!

I'm so excited and had to share that I won the Sketch #94 challenge over at The Scrappiest.  You can check out my layout on the post here.  I can't wait to see what loveliness Liz sends my way.  If you haven't ever played along with her sketches you really ought to check them out.  They are FABULOUS and I am always inspired by them.  Thanks Liz!!!

Off to help out in my kindergartner's class this morning.  Be blessed...

Scrapbbok Challenges Sketch #234

Phew...it's been a busy day and it's only half way over!  I promised myself that today I'd scrap - take the time for me to play in my scrap room because life is going to be busier with a more hectic work schedule coming up soon and I really wanted to re-fuel.  Scrapbooking does that for me - refreshes me, allows me to reflect on wonderful memories and relaxes me.  So today I played along with Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #234 which is here...

I flipped the sketch over because I really wanted to use these cute, embossed balloon stickers that I uncovered in my collection of supplies when my hubby put up my peg board wall this past weekend.  I knew I'd use up more of my older supplies by having all my supplies out where I could see them better and I already have.  Now I have to save up my "shopping" money so when I dwindle down what I have up on that wall, I can replace it with the latest and greatest stuff coming out at the next CHA.  Can you believe it's coming up soon - I can't wait to see all the new designs for Spring.  Oh, I digress...here's my take on the sketch... 

Have a blessed day!

The Last Gift of Christmas and a giveaway...

So over the weekend, my husband put together my last gift of Christmas and I absolutely LOVE it! 

I've been wanting this peg board wall ever since we moved into the office with my scrapping stuff and his fly-tying stuff.  It gives me so much more space in my storage drawers (in other words, the drawers are no longer crammed so full that I can't find what I'm looking for) and it puts many of my embellishments right out there to remind me what I have and use it before buying new stuff.  Good all the way around right?  Here's another shot that shows my half of the room...the other half houses my wonderful husbands desk with all his goodies for fly-tying.  Granted I have a ton of stuff in the closet too but that's much less organized!

On another note, there's a wonderful giveaway over at Paper Grace Designs...seriously, who wouldn't want to win Hero Arts and Unity Stamps???  Tell her I sent you.

Upcoming Scrap the Moments Challenge & The Scrappiest...

So I doubled up this week and took care of my design team responsibilities over at Scrap the Moments as well as working on Liz's Sketch #96 from over at The Scrappiest.  The Scrap the Moments challenge is scrap a holiday layout in non-traditional colors.  This one threw me at first then I started searching through my box of Christmas papers and embellishments only to find a Sassafras ad that I had cut from a magazine last season.  It was an ad for their Life at The Pole collection and included cut-outs for a desktop display.  I didn't make the desktop display but I did cut that ad into many pieces, added LOTS of Diamond Stickels and some Glossy Accents and voila...a non-traditional Christmas layout was born.  I based the framework of the layout on Liz's sketch for this week that you can see below...

And here is how I made my Christmas layout not so Christmas-y...

I used papers from Cosmo Cricket Material Girl collection and Basic Grey Sugar Rush collection, a bit of pink embroidery floss, white chipboard letters from Basic Grey covered in Diamond Stickels to make them look like they were dipped in sugar... and I absolutely love the results.  The photos don't do all the glitter and shine justice but trust me it's there.  The tops of the gumdrops are covered in Stickels so are most of the cute little accents in the border strips.  It's a fun, festive, non-traditionally colored Christmas layout.  Join in the challenge over at Scrap the Moments and show us what you can do.